


It's My Turn

by TheLawyersKeeper



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, M/M, Outdated Medical Practices, Period-Typical Homophobia, Pre-Captain America: The First Avenger, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-War, Sick Bucky Barnes, Sickfic, Skinny!Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22010701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLawyersKeeper/pseuds/TheLawyersKeeper
Summary: Steve walks into their drafty apartment and immediately starts coughing for another reason.It reeks of bleach.He pulls his too-big shirt over his nose and looks at their pathetic Christmas tree and sighs heavily, realizing Bucky isn’t home, he’s probably at his parents.Because bleach only means one thing.Bucky’s sick.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 3
Kudos: 162





	It's My Turn

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little Christmas blurb that popped into my head about my bb Bucky being sick on Christmas instead of Steve for a change.

Steve barely makes it to the top of the stairs before he’s doubling over and wheezing.

Winter hit Brooklyn hard this year, and Bucky and Steve had been counting their blessings that Steve had made it this close to Christmas without getting sick. But Steve was an idiot and he had forgotten his Asthma cigarettes. By the time he’d noticed when he got to work it was still fairly mild and he’d been so excited over the fact that Bucky had somehow managed to get the Christmas Day _and_ the twenty-sixth off that he hadn’t been too worried.

But after pulling a double shift bagging groceries inside, the cold, dry air of December in New York hit his chest especially hard.

But now he was home, and Bucky would be home from his last shift at the docks for the next three days soon and the two of them could just hide away in their apartment and actually just act like a couple.

Steve shoves his key into the rusty lock, already wracking his brain on what he was going to be able to scrounge up for dinner as he shoves the rickety door open. Steve walks into their drafty apartment and immediately starts coughing for another reason.

It reeks of bleach.

Steve pulls his shirt over his nose and looks at their pathetic Christmas tree and sighs heavily, realizing Bucky isn’t home, and he’s probably at his parents.

Because bleach only means one thing.

Bucky’s sick.

* * *

You see, Bucky has this thing he does when he realizes he’s sick. He’ll wait until Steve leaves and then go to absolute town bleaching the life out of the house, trying to disinfect everything while he washed everything in the house at least twice.

Then he’d take off to his parents to hide out in his old bedroom until it went away.

Steve rolls his eyes, grabbing his cigarettes and scarf as he stomps back down into the cold night.

Like Hell his love was going to spend Christmas hidden away with his parents.

* * *

“Hi Mrs. Barnes, how are you?” Winifred smiles warmly, wiping her hands on her apron and looking at him with wrinkled eyes.

“Hello Steve, I’m assuming you’re here for Bucky?” Steve nods and smirks, loving how this woman knows him so well.

“Yes ma’am” Winnifred shakes her head sadly and glances over him at the snowy street.

“He’s not doing well Steve, Dr. Borowitz thinks it may be pneumonia. Why don’t you head on home and I’ll send Becca over when he’s better?” Steve shakes his head, trying to keep the façade of concerned friend well.

“With all due respect Mrs. Barnes, Bucky’s taken care o’me every time I’m sick. I’ve had a good year, I can handle it” Winifred looks at him on concern before sighing heavily.

“I know better than to argue with Steve Rogers. He’s in his old room, if you can convince him to go home with you, I won’t stop you” Steve nods his thanks and shrugs off his coat, leaving it hanging in the front door as he trudges up the stairs, heading towards the back door on the right.

* * *

“Ma?” Steve feels his heart break at the slurred voice of his lover and makes sure to close the door tightly, shuffling across the floorboards and kneeling down next to the bed.

“Nah sweetie, it ain’t yer ma” Bucky blinks slowly and his eyes go wide as the image of his petite sweetheart comes into focus, lurching back in the bed.

“S-Steebie? No, y’can’t be here. M’sick” Steve smiles sadly and nods, running a hand through the sweaty brown curls.

“I can see that, doc says you’re pretty rough up huh? Tryin’ to steal my thunder pal?” Bucky coughs out a surprised laugh, covering his mouth with his arm tightly. Steve’s eyes turn sad and he shushes him gently.

“S’okay hunny, I ain’t worried” Bucky shakes his head and coughs again as he shuffles back further, and away from them blonde. Steve can see the sweat clinging to his clothes and his chest aches with how uncomfortable he knows Bucky must be.

“G’home Steeb, don’t want ya t’get sick too” Steve tugs Bucky’s hair playfully and looks at him.

“C’mon Buck, if I’m gunna get sick its gunna happen anyway. Come home honey, I wanna spend Christmas with my best guy” Bucky looks at him with searching eyes and finally let out a nasally sigh, swallowing thickly as he nods reluctantly, allowing Steve to lace their hands together and kiss him softly.

“Now let’s get you dressed and take you home huh?”

* * *

“And you’re _sure_ you’re gunna be okay with him Steve?” Steve nods as George looks over his shoulder at his son who is wheezing on the couch. Steve smiles politely at the older man and looks over his own shoulder at Bucky as he lets out a rough cough.

“Don’t worry Mr. Barnes, we’ll just take it easy the next few days. If I think it’s getting a little too serious I’ll call and get myself somewhere else.” George nods and furrows his brows, giving Steve a stern look.

Steve holds his gaze and tries not to squirm. Unlike Bucky, Steve doesn’t have too much fear of people finding them out, he’s always known he’d die young anyway.

That being said, he’s seen George Barnes angry, and that’s one fight he’d rather not have.

George sighs heavily and nods, saying nothing as he turns and stomps back down the stairs into the winter night. Steve stands in the doorway for several moments collecting himself before a sickly voice calls behind him.

“S’ve?” Steve closes the door and quickly moves back into the apartment, kneeling beside the couch and running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah baby doll? How ya feelin’?” Bucky lets out a shudder and looks at him gently.

“M’cold” Steve smiles sadly and nods, tucking the light blanket around his lover more tightly.

“I know handsome, give me a few minute and I can get ya all settled okay? Just like you did for me” Bucky coughs and gives a weak nod as Steve clambers to his feet again, setting about boiling water for tea and broth and piling all the blankets on top of their little bed, taking a minute to place a cool, damp cloth on Bucky’s forehead.

* * *

By the time Steve finishes everything, Bucky’s fallen asleep again, the once cool cloth now a warm layer on his forehead as he wheezes in his sleep. Steve looks at him with sad eyes as his heart once again clenches. Bucky looks real bad, and Steve is beginning to understand why Bucky gets so worked up over his own illnesses.

It doesn’t help that Steve knows it was his fault.

Bucky’s been hauling in double and even triple shifts down at the docks, and that cold, wet breeze off the channel hadn’t done any of the workers any favours, none of which was uncommon. But Bucky’d been worse off than most – because he didn’t have the luxury of a winter coat.

And that was on Steve.

* * *

Steve’d gotten into a nasty fight in late November with Ricky Esposito behind their building after he’d caught him trying to pick the lock on old Mrs. McCready’s door.

By the time Bucky’d gotten there – Steve had considered the fact he was still conscious a win and would never forget the look of terror in Bucky’s eyes, the fear that the merciless beating was because they’d _finally_ been discovered. It turned out that Ricky just had a lot of repressed anger and Steve made an excellent punching bag.

But his coat had been ruined, and Bucky had forced him to wear his own until they could buy him a new one.

Which meant Bucky’d gone without a coat for the entire month of December.

* * *

So the wheezing, shivering man on the couch, he was Steve’s responsibility. Steve bites his lip and pulls a chair up to the fridge, climbing up to reach for the old shoebox that contains all of Steve’s medications, pulling out the mostly empty vial of Sulfapyridine from his own last bout with the illness.

He knows Bucky’ll be pissed once he finds out Steve is going to make him take their last bit of the stuff on him – especially since it was so expensive.

But hearing that wet, hacking cough is more than Steve could bear.

He shuffles back into the living room with a cup of tea and bowl of soup, the medicine in his pocket. Bucky blinks up at him blearily and gives a weak smile.

“Hey Sugar, what brings you here?” Steve smiles at the attempt at humour and sets everything down on the table, moving to sit cross-legged on the floor by Bucky’s head.

“My fella got himself in a spot o’trouble. Figured I’d come try to help him out” Bucky smiles and pulls a warm hand out from under the blanket, taking Steve’s cold one in his own and kissing his knuckles.

“M’sorry m’so sick Stevie, s’no way to have Christmas” Steve shakes his head and huddles closer, pressing his own lips to their joined hands.

“Now shut yer face, how many Christmas’s have we spent with me sick huh?” Bucky smiles and nods in agreement as Steve kisses his forehead.

“Here, eat this and we’ll go getcha freshened up and in bed eh?” Bucky lets out a wheezy snort and allows Steve to bring a spoonful of broth to his lips.

“Thanks doll” Steve smiles, trying to convey with his eyes how much the gratitude is unnecessary, how happy Steve is to _finally_ be able to be the caretaker this time.

“Anything for you honey.”

* * *

“No Steve” Steve rolls his eyes and resists the urge to beat his head against the wall as Bucky glares at him.

“Bucky-“ Bucky shakes his head vehemently and crosses his arms over his chest, looking like a petulant child.

“No, m’not taking your medicine Steve, do you know how _expensive_ it is?! Yer not wasting it on me” he locks his jaw stubbornly and Steve clenches his own teeth in response, knowing he’s going to have to play dirty.

“Bucky, please. You and I both know how bad it’ll get if you don’t, what if your lungs start fillin’ huh? We can’t afford a doctor – but we can save up to get a refill o’this. M’not gunna lose you at Christmas because you’re too stupid to take your medicine” Bucky looks at him long and hard for several minutes and eventually sighs heavily.

“Fine, _fine_. But not all of it!” Steve groans and nods, conceding to his lover’s stern compromise as he handed the bottle to him, sitting on the bed as Bucky sipped it, gagging at the taste and causing Steve to laugh. Steve grins happily and curls into bed next to him, stroking his lover’s curls gently as he looks at him with bleary eyes.

“M’sorry m’sick at Christmas Stevie” Steve kisses his forehead tenderly and shakes his head, looking over at their clock which reads ten minutes until midnight.

“Don’t be baby, now I get to keep ya all to myself, don’t gotta share you with anybody tomorrow” Bucky laughs through his nose and wraps his fever warm arms around Steve’s waist, pulling him against his chest and resting his chin on his head.

“Never gotta share my pal, only ever gunna be yours” Steve smiles against his chest and nods, squeezing him tightly.

“Love you Bucky” Steve can hear Bucky beginning to breathe easier as the medicine slowly begins to work.

“Love you too baby doll, Merry Christmas” Bucky kisses the top of his head, Steve answering with a peck on his chest.

“Merry Christmas Buck”.


End file.
